Healthy Boys

Earlier this week the boys had their 2 and 4 year old well-check visits.  Our boys do pretty well at the dr.'s office, but I brought Mike with me for this one. They were both due for shots and, well, I just wasn't sure I could handle that by myself.  I'm so glad he came, because Will decided not to cooperate for half of the things that he needed to do. Yep, we will have to wait until his 5 year old visit to do his hearing and vision test. He just flat out refused. The nurse said it was totally fine, but I think she just didn't want to hear him cry anymore! Other than that we made it through just fine and we found out that our boys are healthy as can be and evidently tall. Both were in the 70th percentile for height. Hmmm...maybe basketball might be an option in our future.

Our big boy weighed in at 34 pounds and 41.5 inches tall. He was 77th percentile for height and 34th percentile for weight. 

Our baby boy weighed in at 28.5 pounds and 34 inches high. He was 73rd percentile for height and 54th percentile for weight.

After the appointment, Mike's gentle heart promised the boys dinner out and ice cream. He can't stand to see them in pain and watching them get shots was more than he could handle. So, we ended up at Fazoli's and Baskin Robbins and had a fun night as a family. Below are some pictures of Luke hamming it up while he was eating his spaghetti. Seriously, this kid keeps us laughing!

Will's special day

 Last Friday was Will's 4th birthday. Since he is old enough to understand what a birthday means, he got to pick out everything that he wanted to do for his special day. Here are a few pictures to show the fun that we had:

First we went to chick-fil-a for lunch. Will really wanted to have lunch and share cake with a few of his closest friends. So we invited Henry, Jack and Miles to come and a play with us. Will picked out his cake from Publix. He was happy to share his cake, but none of us were allowed to sing to him. Just a weird stage he is going through right now. (That morning when he woke up he reminded me that we could not sing to him, but maybe when he was taller we could!)

After lunch, and after Luke had a nap, we went to the outlet mall to walk around and window shop. Surprisingly, our boys love doing this. While we were there we got the chance for a photo-op with our big boy.

After, the outlet mall, we ended up at Moe's for dinner and Toys-R-Us so that Will could shop with a gift card that he had gotten from his birthday party. He came home with a 10 pack of cars from Cars, one of our favorite movies. (We really needed more cars to add to our collection!)

Will, we had a blast spending the day with you! You are a sweet little boy with the biggest heart! You are very caring and compassionate and are very concerned about others. We love you and are so proud of who you are growing up to be!

Luke's Special Day

Mommy with the birthday boy

I talked previously about how important birthdays are at our house. I want to make a big deal about them and let our boys have a day where they get to spend time doing things they don't normally get to do. This year for Luke's birthday we were in Atlanta. His birthday was low-key and fun. We took him to chick-fil-a for lunch and then shopping at Toys-R-Us. We ended the day by going to Stone Mountain for a picnic, train ride and the laser show. 

Mommy & Daddy with our sweet 2 year old!

Lighting the candle & trying to keep it lit!

Showing Luke how to blow out the candle.

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Enjoying the cupcakes!

We love you Lukie! These past 2 years have flown by, and we have enjoyed every minute of watching you grow and change. You have made our little family complete with your daily dose of humor that the rest of us enjoy!

Birthdays

I love birthdays! Obviously, I think that mine (September 27) is the greatest day on the calendar, but I am pretty fond of Mike's (February 6), Will's (August 24) and Luke's (July 23). I literally want to celebrate for the whole day, whether it is my day or theirs.  You know go on a special outing, have a special lunch and/or dinner and of course a special cake.  

When I was growing up, I remember doing just that. I remember getting to pick a special place to go for dinner. I remember getting a cake and always getting to pick the menu for Sunday dinner at Granny Gin's house (which was a huge deal!). But the best part is that my parents & my sister were always with me and if it worked out between school and work schedules we spent the whole day together.

So call me crazy, but I want to do the same thing with my kids. I want to make their entire day special, because frankly, to me it is special. Their birthday marks a wonderful change in my life and a day I will never forget. So, if that means showering my kids with a lot of extra attention and giving them extra sugar, then so be it.  And maybe, just maybe, when they turn 32 they will have fond memories of how we celebrated birthdays in our family.

Speaking of birthdays...Here are just a few pics from the boys party this year. My dad took a ton of pics, these are just a few that I was able to grab on my camera.

Sitting in the birthday chair. Will was less than thrilled because we had just sang happy birthday to him.  He freaked out and decided not to cooperate for the rest of the party. He is going through an "embarrassed" stage. What do you do?

Right before the freak out. 

Party room window decorated for the boys party at Jump for Joey in Hiram, Ga

Luke enjoying opening his presents. Will had no desire to open presents until his cousin Jake started helping out. That seemed to motivate him to see what he had received.

Luke with his new favorite ball. He was watching another birthday party in another room!

Luke and Tate playing on one of the bounces. All the kiddos that came were exhausted, but I think they had fun!

P.S.) We did a special day for Luke on his birthday in July. I will post those pics and write about it soon. Next week we will do a special day for Will. As soon as I can I will post about it as well.

Two years ago

Luke & Mommy meeting for the 1st time

See that picture there? That was two years ago. July 23, 2010. Luke's birthday. He was not even an hour old, he had just been cleaned up and swaddled and the nurse handed him to me. If you have children, then you will never forget this moment. It is literally life-changing. Mike and & I already had one child. All of our love went to him. Before this moment, I struggled with whether I would be able to love Luke the same amount as Will. But as soon as he was handed to me, that struggle was gone. I was in love and I would never be the same.

Fast forward two years and I literally can't even imagine what our like was before Luke. For the record I can't even remember what life was like before Will. All I can say is we had to have been bored. Not now though! These two little boys keep us hopping all day!

Luke has a special place in my heart. He is my little Lukie, my little snuggle buddy, my mama's boy. He can be sooo sweet and he can be sooo bad. He makes us laugh with all of his antics. He has such an adorable little sing-song voice and honestly he can get away with anything when he bats his eyes at me or when he tells me "tant-too" when I hand him something. I think it is precious the way he snuggles his monk when he sleeps and how he has to have it to go to bed. That boy has my heart & I'm pretty sure I have his!

Happy 2nd Birthday Luke! We love you very much!

Kiawah...our favorite spot

If you were to ask Will or myself where our favorite spot in the Charleston area is we would both say Kiawah Island. Hands down. But we are a beach family. Our boys are content to be in the ocean for as long as we would let them. For us, going out there is like being on vacation. Its easy to get caught up in the resort lifestyle, even if we are not living it. We love the beach, the shops and even the restaurants (Red's on Bohicket Marina is our favorite) and the fact that all of this is only 30 minutes from our house!

Right after Luke was born, Mike was able to get a part time job at one of the golf courses out there. This job has been a huge blessing, supplementing our pay from River Church. But it also introduced us to our new favorite beach spot. For Mike, Kiawah might not be his favorite place to go, seeing as how he works there and all, but he will admit, when we go for family beach days he loves it too.

This summer has definitely been a Kiawah summer. We go there exclusively & this year we even spent our 4th of July there. It was relaxing, non-stressful, and most importantly fun!

Growing and Changing

In just a few weeks, Luke will be turning 2. A month after that Will will turn 4. I am not quite ready to have such big boys in my house, but regardless it is happening. Everyday they are both changing so much, but we have been so busy that I have not had the chance to sit down and write about everything that they are doing.

Will is such a big boy and such a big brother! Everyday he "helps" me look after his brother. I don't know how many times I have him scream at his brother" No, Luke!". When I hear that I know to come running because it usually means that Luke is doing something that could get him hurt or in trouble with me!

Will is our good eater. This child LOVES to eat and is not really picky. I love his willingness to try things, especially if I tell him that I like it. I made the mistake of telling him that I don't like fish and now he won't try it. Oops! He is also getting tall. Everyone is commenting on it! He is so long-legged, just like his daddy. Both boys go for their check-ups in August. It will be interesting to see how tall the both have gotten.

Just this week, Will learned to pump his legs while swinging. He is able to get himself going and keep himself going. I was surprised too at how high he can go! He and I were so excited when he did it and he yelled" Mommy! My teacher is going to be so proud at me!". Well, yes, I'm sure his 4 year old teacher that we meet in September will be proud, but not as proud as I am!

Luke is changing the most, but he is still in the stage where everything is a first. Right now, Luke's big thing is talking. He is learning so many words! Many have become part of his everyday vocabulary, like turtle, boat or dog. But he also is very good at repeating words too. The other day I called him over to put on his tennis shoes. He said tennis shoe all day! He was so proud of himself! He still speaks in gibberish for the most part, but I know that any day he is going to start talking up a storm!

Luke is our child that keeps us busy! He is so different from Will when he was that age, but he just seems to find trouble and can't seem to not make a mess. He is a ham and if you laugh at anything he does, he will just give you the world's biggest grin and keep right on doing it!

Luke has hit the stage where he chooses to eat nothing unless it is not good for you. Chicken nuggets, french fries and cookies are staples in his diet that he would prefer to eat everyday. Luckily he loves cereal and loves fruit, so at least I know he is getting so form of nutrients for his growing little body.

As different as they are from each other, the both are similar too. They both love playing or just being outside and the both LOVE water. They would be content to be at the beach or the pool everyday. Which I guess I would too, if we had the choice!